SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State men's basketball team used a 24-4 run midway through the second half to erase a 16-point deficit and defeat the Pepperdine Waves, 65-60 on Sunday afternoon at Steve Fisher Court at Viejas Arena.
Jordan Schakel led the offense for the Aztecs (4-0) with 17 points, Matt Mitchell finished with 13 and Joshua Tomaic totaled 10 points.
"That was a good college basketball game," Aztecs coach Brian Dutcher said. "It was ugly in the first half and that is a credit to Pepperdine. They were physical, they denied (us shots), they bullied us over stuff and they did a great job defensively.
"When we are not making shots, when nothing is going right offensively, our defense will keep us in the game until we hit some kind of offensive rhythm. That is what happened tonight, we could not do anything offensively, but our defense kept us in the game. When we finally hit a little offensive rhythm, we were able to stay close enough to strike back and win the game."
Down 47-31 with 16:16 left in the game, Tomaic, Schakel and Mitchell combined to score 21 of the team's 24 points in a 12:37 span to erase the Waves (2-2) lead and forge a four-point advantage, which they would not relinquish en route to the five-point win.
"We played against a really good basketball team," Pepperdine coach Lorenzo Romar said, "a veteran team with a winning culture that plays a very physical brand of basketball. When they got down, they turned it up and physically they may have wore us down in the second half.
"I have a lot of respect for coach Dutcher, even back when coach Fisher was here and what they've done with this program over the last 20 years. I've watched San Diego State play many times and have coached against San Diego State numerous times. So nothing that they did was a surprise. They're good. It wasn't a surprise."
San Diego State returns to action on Thursday, Dec. 10 at Arizona State. The Aztecs and Sun Devils are scheduled to tip off at 7 p.m. PT.
Aztecs Come From Behind To Defeat Pepperdine 65-60
